The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity.

Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning).

A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.

Common usages:
사실을 인정하다 = to admit the truth
그것이 사실이다 = that is the truth
사실은… = the fact is…

Notes: Often used at the start of sentences to mean “actually…” When used like this, it is common to colloquially say “실은…”

Also commonly used as the noun in a quoted version of ~는 것. For example:
그녀는 아이가 죽었다는 사실을 숨겼어요 = She hid (the fact that) her child died
See Lesson 52 for more information on this.

It can also be used to literally mean “fact”
그것은 사실이에요? = Is that true? (is that a fact?)
저는 그 사실을 백과사전에 찾았어요 = I looked up that fact in an encyclopedia
이 사실을 부장님께 알려 줘야겠어요 = I guess I should tell the boss (about) that fact저는 부장님에게 그 사실을 말할 거예요 = I will tell that (fact) to my boss

Examples:
이렇게 아프면 약을 먹어야 돼요! = If you are this sick, you should take some medicine!
저는 이 약을 하루에 두 번 먹어요 = I eat (take) this medicine twice per day약을 안 먹는다면 열이 나빠질 수도 있어요 = If you don’t eat/take this medicine, the fever could get worse

Common Usages:
하늘만큼 땅만큼 = An idiom that is like saying “thiiiiissss much” For example:
나는 너를 하늘만큼 땅만큼 사랑해 = I love you thiiiiiissss much.”
More literally, “as much as the earth and the sky”
하느님 = Literally, the “respected one in the sky”

Examples:하늘에 비행기가 있어요 = There is a plane in the sky
하늘에 별이 많아요 = There are many stars in the sky이것을 하늘로부터 받았어요 = I received this from the sky (heavens)비가 온 다음 날에 하늘은 보라색으로 바꿨어요 = The sky turned purple the day after the rain

Notes: ‘독도는 우리땅이다’ is a famous saying that Korean people use to express that Dokdo, the disputed territory between Korea and Japan belongs to Korea. This was written on a sign by a fan during the 2012 Olympics in London and when the Korean team one, a Korean player took the sign and ran around the field with it. The player got in a lot of trouble for bringing political elements into the Olympics. By the way, Dokdo does belong to Korea.

Example:
한국은 다른 나라보다 땅이 작아요 = Korea’s land is small compared to other countries

Examples:
그 사람의 성격은 좋아요 = That person’s personality is good
우리의 성격은 달라요 = Our personalities are different
서울에서 사는 사람들의 성격은 너무 급해요= The people who live in Seoul have a very fast personality (rushed/impatient nature)

Notes: There are many adverbs that are used in specific situations to give a sentence feel or emphasis. To indicate that one “sprang” up, the adverb 벌떡 can be used.

일어나다 literally means “to get up” from a sitting/laying position to a standing position. However, it is often used to indicate that one “wakes up” because one usually “gets up” from bed when they wake up. As such, the translation of “일어나다” could be “to get up” or “to wake up” depending on the situation. You can this in the examples below:

Example:
언제 일어났어요? = When did you get up?군인들은 매일 일찍 일어나야 돼요 = Soldiers have to wake up early every day
그녀는 의자에서 일어났어요 = She rose up from her chair
저는 아침에 일찍 일어났어요 = I wokeup early in the morning
우리는 내일 일찍 일어나야 돼요 = We need to wake up early tomorrow morning

Notes: Formed by combining 들다 (to enter) and 가다 (to go). See Lesson 15 for more information.

“들어가세요” is often said to people when they leave a place, almost as a greeting like “goodbye.”

Often used with ~아/어 있다 to indicate that something contains something. For example:
김치에 고추가 들어가 있어요 = There is red peppers in 김치
이 박스에 책이 들어가 있어요 = There are books in this box

Other Examples:
샴푸가 눈에 들어갔어요 = Shampoo wentinto my eyes
학생들은 9시에 학교에 들어갔어요 = The students went into the school at 9:00
수영장에 들어간 후에 옷이 완전히 젖었어요 =My clothes are completely wet after goinginto the pool
이 길이 너무 좁아서 저는 못 들어가요 = I can’t go onto this road because it is so narrow
그 가게에 18세 미만은 못 들어가요 = Those under 18 years of age can’t enter that store
우리는 집에 같이 들어갔어요 = We went into the house together
저는 문을 열고 방에 들어갔어요 = I opened the door and went into the room

Notes: The most common definition of 익숙하다 is “to be familiar with,” but in sentences I prefer to use “to be used to.” For example, if you buy a new pair of shoes, and you still kind of prefer your previous shoes, you could say “새로운 신발에 아직 익숙하지 않아요.” (I’m not used to the new shoes yet).”

Common Usages:
~에 익숙하다 = to be accustomed to
~에 익숙하지 않다 = to not be accustomed to

Example:
저는 한국 음식 맛에 익숙해요 = I am used to the taste of Korean food
저는 그것에 익숙하지 않아요 = I’m not familiar with that

In the last lesson, you learned some important Korean particles that you can use in a wide variety of situations. There are still a few more basic particles that you need to be aware of before you can begin learning more complex grammar. Most of these particles are very common, so it is hard to build sentences using more complex grammar without the use of what you learned in Lesson 12, and what you will learn in this lesson. Let’s get started!

Korean Particles (and): ~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고

~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고 can all be used interchangeably to mean “and” in Korean.
~과 and ~와 are the same. ~과 is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~와 is attached to words ending in a vowel. Similarly, ~랑 and ~이랑 are the same. ~이랑 is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~랑 is attached to words ending in a vowel. ~하고 can be attached to words ending in a vowel or consonant. These can be added fairly simply to nouns. For example:

The two examples above show ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 placed between two nouns that together act as the object of the sentence. Notice that although there are two nouns, both of them (together) sort of act as the single object of the sentence.

Other particles can attach to the construction made by using ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 as well. For example:

Just when you thought this was going to be an easy lesson! Ha! This sounds crazy to an English speaker, but the same particles are used to mean “and” and “with” in Korean. You can distinguish them purely by the context of the conversation, which sounds like it would be difficult. However, even though you probably think it is difficult, it is always clear (even to a beginner) if the speaker is trying to express the meaning of “and” or “with” because of the sentence structure.

For example, when used to have the meaning of “and,” a noun will always follow 과/와/(이)랑/하고: For example:

Also notice that you can actually use these particles to mean both “and” and “with” within the same sentence:

저는 밥을 친구랑 저의 어머니랑 먹었어요 = I ate (rice*) with my mom and my friend*Korean people often use “밥” (rice) to simply mean “food.” It stems from the fact that Korean people eat rice with (almost) every meal – so if you ate, it means that you ate rice. You can say “밥을 먹었어” which can simply mean “I ate.”

Two adverbs that are commonly used in sentences with “with” are 같이 and 함께. Both of them mean “together,” and can be used in sentences even if the sentence doesn’t have one of the particles meaning “with” (과/와/랑/이랑/하고). For example:

저는 빵을 친구랑 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friend저는 빵을 친구와 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friendNotice that I used ~와 with 함께 instead of ~랑. Just like with the meaning of “and,” “~와/과” is more likely to be used in writing and in formal situations, whereas “~(이)랑” is more likely to be used is speech. This entirely depends on the person who is speaking/writing, but it is generally true. Likewise, the use of “함께” is generally used in writing and formal situations. Therefore, the use of 함께 is more likely to be paired with ~과/와 in these cases.

To add an additional level of complexity to this explanation – 같이 is more commonly used than 함께 (같이 is probably one of the most common words in Korean, while 함께 would fall much further down the list). However, when 함께 is used, it is more likely to be used with ~과/와. These are just generalizations based on observations of years of speaking with Korean people.

Note that this meaning of “with” in Korean cannot be used like this:
I built a house with my hands
Remember, “my hands” are the method in which you did something, so, as you learned in Lesson 12 ~(으)로 should be used in those situations. For example:

저는 손으로 집을 지었어요

Korean Particles (to) 에게/한테/께

These three particles can all be used to indicate that you are doing (usually giving) something TO somebody. 에게, 한테 and 께 all have the same meaning, but ~한테 is usually used in conversation, ~에게 is usually written (although it is still said in conversation very often) and ~께 is used when the person you are giving something to requires respect (께 is the honorific form of 에게/한테).

In the sentence above using ~께, a different verb (말씀) and grammatical form (드리다) would more likely be used to conjugate the sentence. At this point, you haven’t learned either of those words (or how they are used), so I refrained from using them in this example. These will be introduced in Lesson 39.For now, focus on the use of ~께 in this sentence.

Note that just because you use ~께 doesn’t mean that your sentence needs to end in a polite way. ~께 is used when the person who is being given is of high importance, regardless of who you are talking to. For example, if I was a teacher, talking to my student, talking about something being given TO the principal, I could say:

Again, the word “드리다” would most likely be used instead of 주다 here. For now, focus on the use of ~께 and we will continue to discuss this in Lesson 39.

Korean Particles (from): ~에게서/한테서/(으)로부터

You learned in Lesson 12 that ~에서 can be used to mean “from” in a wide variety of situations. ~에게서/한테서 can also have the translation of “from,” but they are used in a more restricted way.

~에게서/한테서 has the meaning that is opposite of ~에게/한테/께, which means it is used when somebody receives something from somebody. These particles are attached to the person from whom one receives something from. For example:

However, you cannot use ~에게서/~한테서 to indicate that you received something from a non-person.

To summarize, ~(으)로부터 can be used to indicate that one receives something from a person or non-person. ~에게서 and ~한테서 have a similar meaning, but can only be used when one receives something from a person.

Do something for somebody: ~을/를 위해(서)

If you want to say that you are doing something FOR (the benefit of) somebody, you can add ~를/을 to the person who you are doing something for, followed by 위해(서):

The important thing is that the thing for which you are doing something must be a noun. You can use 위해 to indicate that you are doing something for the purpose of a verb (I am going there to/for the purpose of see(ing) a movie) but you will learn about that in Lesson 32 once you have learned how to change verbs into nouns.

Also make sure that you realize that ‘for’ can have many meanings in English. Just because you say ‘for’ in English, doesn’t mean that it can be translated directly to ~를/을 위해. In Korean, ~를/을 위해 means for the benefit of. For example, in this sentence:

I am waiting for the bus – the ‘bus’ is the object in which you are waiting for, so, in Korean, you attach the particle ~을/를 to ‘bus’ but not ~을/를 위해:

나는 버스를 기다린다

About something ~에 대해

~에 대해 can also be attached to nouns like 를/을 위해, but this has the meaning of “about.” It’s very easy to understand when used in simple situations:

Just like with ~을/을 위해서, there is very little (if any) difference between ~에 대해 and ~에 대해서. For example, the sentences above could all be written as:

나는 너에 대해서 생각했어 = I thought about you
나는 나의 아버지에 대해서 말했어 = I spoke about my father
나는 그것에 대해서 책을 쓸 거야 = I will write a book about it
그 회계사는 정부에 대해서 나쁜 말을 했어요 = That accountant said bad things about the government

One way that you cannot use ~에 대해 is in the following sentence:

My favorite thing about you is your eyes.

I’d love to teach you that sentence in Korean, even though we haven’t covered the grammar, Ah, what the heck – I’ll show you – even though full understanding won’t come until Lesson 28.

너에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 너의 눈이야.

Too complicated for you right now, the grammar within that sentence will be discussed in Lesson 28. Until then…

That’s it for this lesson! I think this one was one of the easiest lessons yet… haha, what do you think? Simple memorizing – nothing too complicated. In the next lesson, we will be talking about something native speakers of any language never think about when they speak… which means it is going to be hard to grasp! Think of this lesson as a gift from me to relax your brain before you start to get confused again!

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